


you got a promise land made of quick sand

by sapphfics



Category: Barbie - All Media Types, Barbie as the Island Princess (2007)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-02
Updated: 2019-06-02
Packaged: 2020-04-06 09:08:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19059568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphfics/pseuds/sapphfics
Summary: Ro begins to fear that the only reason Antonio is marrying her is so that he can bed her without guilt.





	you got a promise land made of quick sand

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ErinacchiLove](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ErinacchiLove/gifts).



> Warning: There are vague references to sex and a mention of suicide in the third section. Yes, you are still reading Barbie fanfic. I am an edgy bitch. Apologies. 
> 
> Also, for future reference, [this](https://barbiemovies.fandom.com/wiki/Princess_Courtney_\(The_12_Dancing_Princesses\)) is Courtney.

Ro begins to fear that the only reason Antonio is marrying her is so that he can bed her without guilt. 

This is not her fault. 

A week before her wedding to Prince Antonio, Queen Danielle asks Ro to attend another tea party. The sun rises high that morning, it gets in her eyes. The palace is too hot. Her mother has gone back home, to Ro’s birth home, to announce her daughter’s miraculous return. 

For the time being, Ro is stuck here. That’s what she likes to call it, getting stuck. No one would willingly choose to stay here, would they? Not even Antonio could stick it out, and he was the crown prince.

If it’s this bad here, she cannot even begin to imagine what life must be like for those who are not royalty. 

“Will you join me for tea, then, Rosella? It will be just the two of us,” Queen Danielle promises. “We need to talk, girl to girl, you know?” 

_I don’t think we’ve spoken girl-to-girl since you thought I poisoned you and your husband locked me up. The man who was meant to bring me back to the island tried to murder us all for a few coins._ Ro muses. 

No one calls her Ro anymore, except for Luciana and Antonio. She misses it, sometimes, her lack of identity. There was a sweet simplicity in being no one and coming from nowhere and having no memories and no purpose in life except taking care of the animal family she had forged on her own that she never got to appreciate. 

But she cannot dwell on this now. The Queen of Apollonia is not subtle. Ro can see the Queen’s eyes bulge at the sight of her ill fitting crown, the state in which she has left the expensive dresses her mother bought her because she was drowning in them all over again. The sleeves are gone now, ripped away, and Queen Danielle can see her ever bare feet.

She does not say it. There are so many things she does not say. 

Instead, she laughs, stiffly. Forced. “That would be lovely. This afternoon, then?” 

-:-

Tika doesn’t want Ro to go, but Tika does not want Ro to do anything so she goes anyway. 

They sit on the same balcony that the last disastrous tea party was held at. Ro stiffens, pulls her braid out from behind her back. She runs her fingers through her hair; a nervous habit she’s never gotten rid of. 

“Though I had never met another man before,” Ro admits. “But I feel as though I am the luckiest girl in the world to be marrying your son.” 

“Yes, there are other men in the world. But Antonio loves you, that much is clear.” The Queen is watching her curiously, almost just as she did before Ro was anything but a girl who could talk to her pet monkey. “Your mother asked me to tell you this, since I have known you longer. You see, Rosella, when a woman is married...there are certain duties she that must perform.” 

Ro raises an eyebrow. “Such as? Cleaning, cooking, that sort of thing? I know most of that from the island.” 

“Oh!” Queen Danielle sighs. “No, my sweet child.” 

Queen Danielle then explains exactly what this duty entails, in more detail than Ro wants. 

The tea is cold by the time she brings it to her lips. The servants probably slipped some ice cubes in for fear of burning the lost princesses’ tongue. Ro decides she no longer cares. 

-:-

There are many things Ro does not know about love. She knows even less about humanity. 

Luciana confides in her, after her and Antonio’s botched wedding. Neither of them have ever had a friend before, let alone in this wretched place. So, in the dead of night, Luciana sits in Ro’s new chambers, the ones reserved for royal visitors. Ro rememberers them well; the stifling ones, with too many plucked feathers to count. A mockery of her. 

“I am sorry for stopping the wedding,” Ro lies. “But...I had to free myself.” 

“Oh Ro, don’t bother with your false apologies,” Luciana says, waving her hand. “I’ve heard enough of that from my mother. I am glad you stopped it. I could never stand at an altar with a man and vow to worship his body. Not that Antonio isn’t adequate, but I could not lie to God.” 

“What are you talking about?” Ro asks, curious now. Luciana has always intrigued her, so beautiful yet so kind despite her awful mother. “Did you love another man?” 

“Another man? No. A lady. Courtney and I had met before, at my finishing school.” Luciana reveals. “She comforted me, after my mother was taken away. Extradited to your kingdom. That’s when we started...I don’t know, I just look at her, and I think so this is what all those poems were talking about.” 

“I’m happy for you!” Ro tells her, not least because this means King Peter was a fool this whole time. “Will you invite me to your own wedding, Luciana? I promise I won’t interrupt this one.” 

“We can’t have a wedding,” Luciana says, sadly. “But I shall invite you, regardless, my dearest friend.” 

-:-

When Ro learned from her mother of her father’s suicide, she did not cry. Not in front of her mother, not until she was alone. She is not broken, though, because Luciana assured her there are five stages of grief. 

She is not angry, not anymore, she is just tired. Her father died years ago, soon after their boat docked with him as the soul survivor. He couldn’t go on. It doesn’t feel right to mourn him, not when she can barely remember him. The only thing he ever said to her was hold on. 

So she does. She holds on, and grieves for her father and for her mother and for the childhood she should have had. But her childhood is long over, and now she wants to be married to the only man she has ever loved. She wants to walk in the sun, to explore the world beyond maps with him. 

She is also no fool. 

She knows that King Peter still wants his son to be with Luciana, but Ro knows that Luciana’s heart lies with a woman in a bright blue dress named Courtney, who has so many sisters that her aged father will not mind her lack of a political marriage. Her mother has matters to attend to in Paladia, the one place Ro still cannot bring herself to face. 

All she will have, soon, is Antonio. 

But Antonio loves her. Antonio was willing to give up everything - his crown, his money, his family - for her. 

Perhaps, that will be enough. 

Hope has gotten her through worse things, hasn’t it?

**Author's Note:**

> Wow??? I wrote het for once??? Except not really. And there’s still some gay shit in there. Anyway, I actually wanted to write Ro/Luciana or Luciana/Courtney but I have a lot of opinions about Ro’s life post movie (as you can probably tell) so...wrote this mess instead. I promise I’ll get back to writing femslash soon!! Title is from “Slow Talkin’” by Haley Heynderickx (who you should all go listen to.) Comment if you enjoyed? <333


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